Beneath My Hands by Leonard Cohen

Dear R: I used to read this all the time. I have written it in journals, recited it to myself in the dark. I said, someday if a man reads this to me, if a man knows this poem and gives it to me – I will love him with all my heart. Because it is one of the most beautiful poems ever written. Because a man who can recognize this, who can know the meaning of this, is man that should be loved.

And oh, how should I know, that years and years later on, I would be here, and you would be here, and you would offer this poem to me? You left me speechless. I have no words to tell you what you have done to me. In all our other lives, I am in the next plane, coming home to you. I am opening the door, welcoming you home. I am jumping in your arms, kissing your mouth. I am undressing you, smelling your skin. I am looking in your eyes, telling you how much I love you.

I posted your page to my Facebook page on 10 November 2016. Dear Leonard dead at 82. I started reading him about 50 years ago, bought his first record, and saw him at the Isla of Wight festival in 1970.